After a bewildering few days in Angola which you can read about here and here, I sat at the airport lounge in exhaustion, thinking about my Angolan adventure.

My little flunky brain could not comprehend how the 2nd largest oil producer in the continent, had multiple power cuts in their capital city everyday; how public roads with massive potholes led to sprawling mansions; how 40% of the population could live below the poverty line when it was consistently one of the top 10 diamond producers in the world; how public infrastructure in the city floundered while Chinese construction companies could be undertaking massive projects in the outskirts; how people still washed their clothes in the brown river, while a little way down the river, expats and top businessmen crowded into expensive waterfront modern restaurants.

Expensive waterfront dining

Doing laundry in the brown river water

Beautiful buildings in the city

Homes of the locals just outside the capital

Traditional markets

Floundering public infrastructure

My thoughts didn't venture far before I noticed that the buses that were bringing people to board the plane were turning back and we were told to stay in the lounge.